What went down: HR Tech, Indeed, JobFox, and more

It’s been a busy couple of weeks – first we discovered that Recruit bought Indeed, then Doostang bought JobFox, and then many of the heavyweights in the online recruiting world rolled into Chicago for HR Tech. Geez! What’s next?

Rather than trying to construct a well-reasoned and thought-out post, I’ve decided instead to get down some thoughts about these events – and what they may mean for the job board world. Maybe my brain will settle down in time to think logically for next week’s offering!

Indeed acquisition: As per many sources, Indeed seemed to be on the road to an IPO (a path we know is often fraught with peril and surprise – just ask Mark Z.), when the folks at Recruit made them an offer they simply couldn’t refuse. After all, why risk the uncertain return of an IPO once you’ve got the first $1 billion or so in your pocket? So Indeed goes for the certain money and also the freedom to work without the needling oversight of stockholders and the financial press. Makes sense to me. What’s next? I’m guessing an acceleration of the existing effort to turn Indeed into the next Monster (the latter, after all, is still making boatloads more than Indeed). I expect to see redoubled efforts in non-U.S. markets to make Indeed relevant and even occasionally dominant. A possible hiccup or two may be in the offing, though: CareerBuilder would prefer to have the big job board market to itself, and LinkedIn continues to be aggressive in launching new features and services – in a way we simply haven’t seen from Indeed. I suspect the year 2013 will be a big one for the aggregator/job board.

JobFox is subsumed by Doostang: As per Joel Cheesman’s revealing video interview with Jeff Berger, CEO of Doostang, JobFox’s assets were acquired recently – adding a considerable number of registered users to the Doostang database. I’ll admit – although I thought that JobFox would be picked up sooner or later, I would not have predicted that Doostang would do the honors. No word on what happens to those resume writers with bounced checks…

HR Tech: First time at this show, and time well spent. One category stuck out to me: that of what I would call a social sourcing tool. In this category were TalentBin(which is essentially a stand-alone social search tool), SelectMinds, RemarkableHire (tech only), Talemetry(a combo sourcing platform and engagement tool),Jobvite, and SmashFly(which aims to be more of a marketing and sourcing platform – thus more features). Then there were the ‘fit and culture‘ tools, designed to help employers assess who will best meld into their organization, including the very interesting RoundPegg. You can’t forget about video interviewing and screening – lots of offerings here, including SparkHire, Wowzer, HireVue, HireRight, and others. Finally, there were job boards as well: Dice, Monster, CareerBuilder, BarrelofJobs, Indeed, and OneWire. (I am of course skipping over the scores of HR software companies that don’t directly tie into online recruiting – trust me, there were plenty). And this is not to mention some great conversations with HR and recruiting folks about what is and isn’t working. Bottom line? This is a great show to learn more about how mid- and large-size companies are implementing their recruiting and sourcing efforts – and where they’re going next.

Notice I haven’t said a thing about LinkedIn’s big rollout of new features? That shall be reserved for another day!